Letters

Letters to the Editor

LAUREL
Music is a blessing
Trouble on the vine? So if there’s music, the community is no good anymore?
Hate to inform you, but music breathes and lives out here. It’s not a curse but a blessing.
When I was kid out here 30-plus years ago it was much quieter. The influx of people from all over creates a need and a want. Wine is big and what goes best with wine? Music. The demand is created by those who’ve come here wanting this.
Wineries don’t throw money away for nothing. People want music at their tastings, and I should know. I’m a professional musician out here and my bands know the need quite well by the calls we get.
If it’s intrusive and bothers you, don’t go. If you moved next to it, well…
If Josh Horton throws a “major music festival” and 100,000 show up rather than 800 then God bless America. Woodstock survived and so will this town. The Town Board did the right thing. They didn’t do a damn thing.
This town is not just for quiet people or inactive people or just boaters. It’s for diversity and music thrives here. Stay home, but don’t ask the board to stick it to the music lovers of this town. Its a bit self-serving.
Gregg Schweitzer
CUTCHOGUE
Music is a good thing
In response to “Trouble on the Vine,” I am one of the multitude of transplants who moved out here, attracted by the beauty of the North Fork and the wonderful community that exists out here.
In the past 18 years I have watched the area change from pretty much dead from Labor Day till Memorial Day, to one that is alive with diversity, events and an economy that has continually been stimulated by new ideas and an influx of art, music and people.
I do find it interesting that in Mr. D’Angelo’s list of the things he finds disruptive about the wineries, he cites the musical events that go past 11.  In my experience performing with a local band, we are cut off at 11 no matter what. Over the years, I know that local bars have had neighbor troubles when, say, a B&B decides to open up near an existing musical venue and then the B&B owners have noise complaints.
Honestly? I lived across the street from the Blue Dolphin with a 4-month-old and I never had a problem. I welcome the growth of the local economy. We still live in a quiet and bucolic community. It’s not music every night, all the time.
The Strawberry Festival and numerous carnivals cause traffic snarls and noise, and there is rarely an objection. Pumpkin and berry and apple pickers, and after a brief break, Christmas tree hunters, tend to be a complaint of many of our locals. Watching an irate tourist trapped behind a potato truck is often cited as an amusement.
We have more threatening issues out here. Heroin, for example. Or something as simple as the “bad apples” cited in the u-pick article who come and pick fruit they don’t pay for. That bothers me way more than a little music. At least the music draws an audience, provides work and stimulates the local economy.
Maribeth Mundell
CUTCHOGUE
U-pick, you pay
Your article concerning the state of the U-pick scene (“Bad apples alter U-pick scene,” July 15) contains a few inaccuracies, specifically relating to Wickham’s Fruit Farm.
I have been picking and purchasing from their stand for over 30 years. When we went this year to pick blueberries, we were told about the new club membership and that there would be benefits. But when we asked what the benefits were, we were told they hadn’t come up with any yet.
Fine, if you have to charge an additional fee, just do it and don’t make any excuses. Also, you cannot just pick and pay. First you pay